NO TO PUV PHASEOUT! SUPPORT STRIKING JEEPNEY DRIVERS!
Malaya Movement USA stands in solidarity with the thousands of PISTON and MANIBELA jeepney drivers and transport workers who have launched a multi-day strike, ahead of the jeepney phaseout deadline of December 31.
We continue to support the demands of PISTON who are calling for the removal of the December 31 deadline for franchise consolidation, the elimination of the franchise consolidation requirement altogether and ultimately, the repeal of the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) instituted by the Duterte regime in 2017. The supposed modernization program fails to consider the livelihood of thousands of jeepney drivers who will be subjected to this unfair franchise consolidation and an increased cost for their day to day operations.
Malaya Movement USA recognizes that workers rights are human rights that must be defended and fought for in a country where political attacks on labor organizers are common, like in the cases of Jude Fernandez and Alex Dolorosa who were ruthlessly attacked and murdered by state forces of the Marcos Jr. regime for their advocacy.
This strike comes just days after Marcos Jr.’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) trip in the U.S., where other “modernization” and “green” deals were signed to the detriment of the majority of the Filipino people. While genuine efforts to modernize transport, infrastructure, and other industries should be welcomed, under Marcos Jr., all evidence so far points to further selling out the Philippines to the highest bidders, be it foreign corporations or countries in the name of false innovation. This further stunts the Philippines’ own ability to develop its own industries, instead making it more reliant on foreign intervention and subservience.
We call on Malaya Movement USA members and supporters of workers rights to express solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of striking transport workers in the Philippines.
